Yesterday the internet exploded when traditional powers Georgia and Oklahoma were excluded from the BCS to let in MAC champion Northern Illinois. Here’s the matchup’s that set up the furor:
Champion: Notre Dame vs. Alabama
Rose Bowl: Wisconsin vs. Stanford
Fiesta Bowl: Oregon vs. Kansas State
Sugar Bowl: Florida vs. Louisville
Orange Bowl: Northern Illinois vs. Florida State
The Championship game and the Fiesta bowl look like good matchups but the other three appear to be mismatches. I expect ratings to be as bad as last year which is what led the Presidents/ADs to finally allow a playoff. One of the reasons for the uproar is the Final BCS standings:
1 Notre Dame (1st at large)
2 Alabama (SEC Champ)
3 Florida (2nd at large)
4 Oregon (3rd at large)
5 Kansas State (B12 Champ)
6 Stanford (Pac 12 Champ)
7 Georgia
8 LSU
9 Texas A&M
10 South Carolina
11 Oklahoma
12 Florida State (ACC Champ)
13 Oregon State
14 Clemson
15 Northern Illinois (Small school qualifier)
16 Nebraska
The Big Ten champ Wisconsin was 26th and the Big East champ Louisville was 21st in the final standings.
4 teams ranked higher than 12 are in a BCS game. When you consider that 10 teams make it into the BCS fans have a right to feel upset. SEC fans feel they should have at least 1 more team but there is a rule that a conference can only have two participants. One complication that hasn’t happened since 2007 is Notre Dame had a good year they took one at large position. Then there is the weak champions from the ACC, B1G, and Big East. The most controversial entrant is Northern Illinois who got in using the rule that Utah/TCU/Boise State’s success created. All these schools are now in BCS conferences but it was created to forestall government intervention into the bowl system. It guarantees one small school from a non-BCS conference a spot if they meet 2 rules: the team is ranked better than 16 and the team is ranked ahead of two BCS champions. Northern Illinois met this and they had to be given a spot.
Someone on the O-Zone made the comment that the NCAA caused their own mess. By penalizing Ohio State and Penn State they weakened the B1G to the point that gave a 3rd place Wisconsin a spot in the B1G championship game. If neither is penalized then the game features an undefeated Ohio State or a 2 loss (at most) Penn State vs Nebraska. Both teams would have been ranked in the top 10 as would the winner of the championship game. The matchups would look something like:
Ohio State vs Notre Dame
Alabama vs Stanford
Florida vs Oregon
Oklahoma vs Florida St
Kansas St vs Louisville
Even if Penn State or Nebraska won it would have looked something like this:
Notre Dame vs Alabama
Stanford vs Penn St/Nebraska
Florida vs Oregon
Oklahoma vs Florida St
Kansas St vs Louisville
Television would have loved these matchups and ratings would have set records. It’s really too bad as I’m only looking forward to the Rose Bowl and the BCS game right now. We are stuck with this system for another year and then the bowls will be allowed to pick whomever they choose and not be beholden to rules that don’t work.
Sports Illustrated did a mock with a bunch of people that would make up the selection committee and the discussion was much different than I expected. Polls and computer rankings were used but who is playing the best at the end of the year and gut feeling also played a part. It was an interesting look at the troubles facing this committee in a year I thought would be easy but after looking closer it isn’t. Notre Dame, Alabama, Stanford, and Kansas St. are the obvious subjects with 3 conference champs and 1 at large but Florida and Oregon are difficult to ignore. The consensus from the men in the mock was that they need to expand it to 8 which is the best solution in my opinion. An eight team playoff would have the six I mentioned and then it would depend on how they set it up. If you go with five automatic qualifiers then Florida State and Wisconsin would be included. Otherwise it would probably be Georgia and Oklahoma (no way they let 4 SEC teams in the playoff).
The new system is set up to put the major conferences into major bowls but the little guys are getting squeezed out of the picture. That's why I hope the non-BCS qualifiers come to their senses and create their own system. There is no doubt in my mind that when college football switches to a system where the bowls can get whoever they want the matchups will always exclude the small schools. There is talk of adding a 6th bowl to accommodate them but that is a bit funny since that is the same reason they added the 5th game.
The system for the future is taking shape but what about the small schools that are getting shut out in 2014?
In my opinion they should try for is a payout double to what they get now (approx. $100,000 per school) plus a guarantee that if they are in the top 6 AP/Coaches poll they will be included in the playoff. The sad truth for many of these schools is even if they go get to a major bowl they lose money because of ticket guarantees they can’t meet (UConn lost $2million to go to the Fiesta Bowl). Big schools are attractive for bowls because their fans travel and bring 20,000+ fans into the local economy and spend $1000 each on flights/hotel rooms/food/etc. Small schools only benefit to bowls is in television and ESPN/Fox only pay top dollar for something that will attract viewers. It is a situation begging for a small school playoff played at modest sized stadiums.
There are 6 small conferences right now though some might argue the ACC should be included:
Sunbelt
Conference USA
Big East
MidAmerican
Mountain West
Western Athletic
I was surprised on Saturday to find there was no big game until 5 pm. The SEC is a 5pm game, the B1G was at 8PM, and so was the ACC. The MAC and the Pac12 played on Friday night. The leagues do this because I’m sure the networks have told them the ratings are better at those times. The earlier games on Saturday were a mishmash of small schools and Big 12 games that no one cared about. The small schools need to take advantage of this situation and give people quality football played between teams that are playing for something.
It would be easy to convince the NCAA of an 8 team playoff for the small schools. If the small schools agreed to this, the big schools would agree to most anything so they can avoid litigation and government interference. It would be easy to accomplish as all they’d need to do is rank the teams and form playoff brackets with seeds 1-4 having first round home games. The Big East and the MAC have gotten people used to watching them on Thursday so put one game there and other three on Saturday morning. Stagger the Saturday starts so that the first begins at 11am and the last will end just before 5pm. That allows everyone to watch the ending of every game. The key is to hook them so they watch the bowl and championship game. As the NCAA tournament has proved, people are more willing to watch if they know something about a team.
How would it look this year? (Team (Conference) – AP Rank)
N Illinois (MAC) – 16
Utah ST (WAC) – 18
Boise St (MWest) - 20
Louisville (Big East) - 22
San Jose St (At large) - 24
Kent St (At large) - 25
Arkansas St (Sunbelt) - 36
Tulsa (C-USA) – 38
The schools/conferences would make money on these home games and it would create interest for the winners in the semifinals which would be given a slot between Christmas and New Years with no competition (ideally a Saturday). The losers could play in the Motor City Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl, or where ever they can negotiate.
It’s a win/win and whoever wins the championship will have something very special to celebrate. If a team has continual success then perhaps a team will gain a following that the big bowls can’t ignore.
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